Do we really know vitamin and mineral requirements for infants and children?

Vitamins in cell culture media: Stability and stabilization strategies

Nowadays, chemically defined cell culture media (CCM) have replaced serum- and hydrolysate-based media that rely on complex ingredients, such as yeast extracts or peptones. Benefits include a significantly lower lot-to-lot variability, more efficient manufacturing by reduction to essential components, and the ability to exclude components that may negatively influence growth, viability, or productivity. Even though current chemically defined CCMs provide an excellent basis for various mammalian biotechnological processes, vitamin instabilities are known to be a key factor contributing to the variabilities still present in liquid CCM as well as to short storage times. In this review, the chemical degradation pathways and products for the most relevant vitamins for CCM will be discussed, with a focus on the effects of light, oxygen, heat, and other CCM compounds. Different approaches to stabilize vitamins in solution, such as replacement with analogs, encapsulation, or the addition of stabilizing compounds will also be reviewed. While these vitamins and vitamin stabilization approaches are presented here as particular for CCM, the application of these concepts can also be considered relevant for pharmaceutical, medical, and food supplement purposes. More precise knowledge regarding vitamin instabilities will contribute to stabilize future formulations and thus decrease residual lot-to-lot variability.

Vitamin Pharmacogenomics: New Insight into Individual Differences in Diseases and Drug Responses

Vitamins are vital to sustain normal physiological function, metabolism, and growth for all living organisms. Being an integral component of coenzyme, vitamins can affect the catalytic activities of many enzymes and the expression of drug transporters. Genetic variations in metabolism and/or transporter genes of drugs can influence the exposure of the human body to drugs and/or their active metabolites, thus contributing to the variations in drug responses and toxicities. Nonetheless, pharmacogenomics studies on nutrients have been rarely summarized. In this article, we reviewed recent progress on vitamin pharmacogenomics, for a better understanding on the influence of vitamin-related gene polymorphisms on inter-individual differences in diseases and drug efficacy and safety.

Identification, prevention and treatment of iron deficiency during the first 1000 days

Iron deficiency is a global problem across the life course, but infants and their mothers are especially vulnerable to both the development and the consequences of iron deficiency. Maternal iron deficiency during pregnancy can predispose offspring to the development of iron deficiency during infancy, with potentially lifelong sequelae. This review explores iron status throughout these "first 1000 days" from pregnancy through two years of age, covering the role of iron and the epidemiology of iron deficiency, as well as its consequences, identification, interventions and remaining research gaps.

Nutrient intakes of children aged 1–2 years as a function of milk consumption, cows’ milk or growing-up milk

Objective

To evaluate the nutritional adequacy of diets in early childhood as a function of milk intake, cows’ milk (CM) or growing-up milk (GUM).

Design

From a cross-sectional food consumption survey, two groups of children aged 1–2 years were defined: Group CM fed exclusively on CM ≥ 250 ml/d and Group GUM fed on GUM ≥ 250 ml/d. Proportions of children at risk of nutrient excess or insufficiency were estimated relative to the French Recommended Daily Allowances, Estimated Average Requirements or Adequate Intakes.

Setting

Parents participating in the survey were recruited from all regions of France by a polling organization. Distribution was adjusted to that of the French population.

Subjects

Sixty-three (Group CM) and fifty-five (Group GUM) children.

Results

Total energy and macronutrient intakes were similar in the two groups except protein intake of Group CM, which was much higher than the Recommended Daily Allowance and significantly higher than in Group GUM. A high percentage of children of Group CM had intake of linoleic acid (51 %) and α-linolenic acid (84 %) below the lower limit of the Adequate Intake, and intake of Fe (59 %) vitamin C (49 %) and alimentary vitamin D (100 %) less than the Estimated Average Requirement. Significant differences were observed in the proportions of children with a risk of dietary inadequacy between the two groups for all the mentioned nutrients (P < 0·001). In Group GUM, this imbalance was only observed for vitamin D. Intake of foods other than milk and dairy products could not account for these discrepancies.

Conclusions

Consumption of CM (≥250 ml/d) entails the risk of insufficiency in α-linolenic acid, Fe, vitamin C and vitamin D. Use of GUM (≥250 ml/d) significantly reduces the risk of insufficiencies in the mentioned nutrients.

Effects of diet on early stage cortical perception and discrimination of syllables differing in voice-onset time: a longitudinal ERP study in 3 and 6 month old infants

The influence of diet on cortical processing of syllables was examined at 3 and 6 months in 239 infants who were breastfed or fed milk or soy-based formula. Event-related potentials to syllables differing in voice-onset-time were recorded from placements overlying brain areas specialized for language processing. P1 component amplitude and latency measures indicated that at both ages infants in all groups could extract and discriminate categorical information from syllables. Between-syllable amplitude differences-present across groups-were generally greater for SF infants. Responses peaked earlier over left hemisphere speech-perception than speech-production areas. Encoding was faster in BF than formula-fed infants. The results show that in preverbal infants: (1) discrimination of phonetic information occurs in early stages of cortical processing; (2) areas overlying brain regions of speech perception are activated earlier than those involved in speech production; and (3) these processes are differentially modulated by infant diet and environmental factors.

Vitamins for babies and young children

The Welfare Food Scheme has recently been reviewed, and, although changes are being made, free vitamin supplements for children <4 years old will remain an important part of the new "Healthy Start" scheme. Establishing precise daily requirements for vitamins is not easy, and there is considerable individual variation; however, achieving the reference nutrient intake (RNI) should be possible with a healthy balanced diet for all except vitamins K and D, which require additional physiological or metabolic processes. For vitamin K, there is a well-established neonatal supplementation programme, and clinical deficiency is extremely rare. For vitamin D, however, supplementation is inconsistent, and both clinical and subclinical deficiencies are not uncommon in young children in the UK, particularly infants of Asian and Afro-Caribbean ethnic origin, and those who have prolonged exclusive breast feeding and delayed weaning. Most vitamin supplements contain vitamins A, C and D, with or without some of the B group of vitamins. There is clinical and dietary evidence to support vitamin D supplementation and some evidence from dietary surveys that vitamin A intakes may be low; however, there is no evidence to support supplementation of diets of UK children with water-soluble vitamins. Future strategy should aim at education of the public and health professionals regarding dietary intake and physiological aspects of vitamin sufficiency, as well as increasing awareness and availability of supplements, particularly of vitamin D, for those at increased risk of deficiency.